Godzilla vs. Kong. Batman v Superman. Drone vs. rover?
While Hollywood loves pitting iconic characters against each other in a summer blockbuster, even those fighting the same good fight, that’s not the case for planetary scientists exploring the Moon, Mars and more beyond
Earth science professor Catherine Neish led a team of Western students to Iceland for two weeks this summer (July 10-August 10) to collaborate with scientists and engineers from NASA, the University of ‘Arizona, Honeybee Robotics, MDA and Reykjavik University at RAVEN. (Rover–Aerial Vehicle Exploration Network) field study to test the many advantages of deploying drones and rovers together, like a superhero-style team, to advance autonomous exploration for future space missions.
Catherine Neish
“Drone technology is the next big step in planetary exploration. It allows us to reach areas we could never reach on land more quickly and efficiently,” Neish said.
An expert in astrobiology and impact cratering, Neish uses new technologies, including radar, lidar (light detection and detection), rovers and drones, to study the geology of planetary surfaces.
“If you use a rover and a drone together, you can maximize the area you can cover. Drones can access areas that rovers can’t. But drones are so small that you can’t carry a lot of equipment or instrumentation, so you can also you need rovers,” said Neish, also a professor at the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration (Western Space).
“With drones and rovers together, you really maximize your scientific performance as opposed to just using one,” Neish said.
RAVEN Principal Investigator Christopher Hamilton of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory operating the DJI Matrice 300. Photo by Gavin Tolometti
At the Holuhraun lava flow in central Iceland, Neish and his international collaborators from academia, government and industry tested the RAVEN Claw, a prototype drone, developed by Honeybee Robotics, which is fully equipped with an adaptable sample acquisition device and its own. Sensor payload to measure everything from land formation to atmospheric chemistry. The team also worked with the Canadian Space Agency’s Mars Exploration Science Rover (MERS) and drones from the University of Arizona.
“Iceland is an excellent analog of Mars. It’s ice cold like we see on Mars and it’s also very dry. It has fresh lava flows that are covered by sand. It’s honestly one of the best analogs of Mars I’ve ever seen. It has the same geological processes that we see on Mars,” Neish said.
Gavin Tolometti
Western Space postdoctoral researcher Gavin Tolometti joined Neish in Iceland and served as project leader. Tolometti worked on the rover team with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineer and Western alumnus Raymond Francis and MDA engineer Chris Langley along with Western graduate student Jamie Graff, who operated the LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy) instrument to obtain the chemical composition of the rover.
Graduate students Jahnavi Shah and Elisa Dong worked on drone operations and drone implementation, respectively.
Neish primarily studied sand ramps that have built up at the edge of the Holuhraun lava flow over the past seven years since it formed, while graduate student Reid Perkins operated a backpack lidar system to obtain accurate topography data and investigate subsurface structure with GPR (ground penetrating radar). Western alumnus and current JPL postdoctoral researcher Shannon Hibbard also joined this work.
Shannon Hibbard (left), PhD student Jamie Graff (center left), Master’s student Elisa Dong (center right), and PhD student Reid Perkins (right) set up and tested science equipment for the mission RAVEN. Photo by Gavin Tolometti
This summer, the RAVEN team operated the drone and rover separately, as researchers wanted to assess the scientific output of two autonomous operations. Next year, Neish and his collaborators plan to return to Iceland to incorporate drones and rovers into an operational strategy.
Catherine Neish (center) and NASA JPL engineer Raymond Francis (left) at Jökulsá á Fjöllum, Iceland’s second longest river (206 km). Photo by Gavin Tolometti
“We are very excited to see the results this summer and learn more about how sand can obscure lava flows on Earth and Mars,” Neish said. “Next year, we’ll have the rover driving the drone and use them in tandem, and then we’ll compare the data this summer to see which approach works best.”
Neish says that the RAVEN field study in Iceland, and the planned return next year, is very important because NASA just announced that the samples being retrieved by the Perseverance rover will be picked up by a drone to bring them safely in the spacecraft, before being returned to Earth. .
“We need some way for the drones to collect the samples, and so Honeybee, with our input, is looking at different technologies to take samples from a drone, which has never been done before,” Neish said. “It’s very exciting and a great opportunity for our students.”
The Canadian Space Agency’s Mars Exploration Science Rover (MERS) in the field with the Vatnajökull glacier in the background. Photo by Gavin Tolometti